Wild Beasts have admitted to “sucking corporate cock” when licensing one of their songs for a TV advert.

In 2010, a Santander TV advert featured part of the band’s song ‘Underbelly’ as part of a wider advertising campaign. Speaking to Middle Boop, drummer Chris Talbot admitted the decision was purely based on finance and that it is a decision he now regrets.

“We sucked corporate cocks at one point,” says Talbot. “I think it is quite a hard world out there and sadly sometimes it is quite easy to make ends meet by just being completely single-minded and not being 100 per cent pure on your output for what it’s used for. I think that when that opportunity came along, it’s not like it bought us all four big houses but I did mean that we could carry on doing what we were doing.”

Explaining how the band no longer feel connected to the song, which appears on 2009 album ‘Two Dancers’, Talbot continues: “I think it is connected to things with which you don’t want to be associated, some people would say a bank. I think when that sort of offer is put to you, you know what it means for your own creative endeavours further down the line.”

Wild Beasts fourth album ‘Present Tense’ is due for release on February 24. The band will then play six dates on a headline UK and Irish tour starting in March and running into April, including a date at London’s Brixton Academy. The band will also perform live in Manchester, Glasgow, Dublin, Bristol and Cambridge. Scroll down for full details.